Plymouth County lab finds clues in hard drives, cellphones

Monday

Apr 23, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 23, 2012 at 11:09 PM

Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Tara Cruza and the High Tech Evidence Analysis Team help local police departments process computers and cellphones as technology becomes a more important part of police work.

Justin Graeber

Tara Cruza knows what’s on your cellphone.

Cruza, a deputy and chief computer specialist at the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, runs a forensic computer lab.

Her job involves scanning hard drivesand dumping call logs and text messages from cellphones as part of the High Tech Evidence Analysis Team.

Cruza first worked with the sheriff as an intern at Bridgewater State College in 1999, then in the sheriff’s information technology department before taking over the H.E.A.T. lab last July.

Every day, Cruza does computer work as part of police investigations for the towns in Plymouth County. She recently participated in Operation Corral, a statewide police sting that resulted in the arrests of 32 men, including one from Scituate, two from Brockton, one from Taunton and one from Middleboro.

The H.E.A.T. lab, which was started in 2003, participated in the statewide Operation Trenchcoat in 2006.